


The Days Went By

by Kirkland_Bonnefoye78



Series: Through The Years [2]
Category: One Piece
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2020-08-23 05:46:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20237725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kirkland_Bonnefoye78/pseuds/Kirkland_Bonnefoye78
Summary: An adventure with Luffy's crew.





	1. Where Everything Starts

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, my beloved peeps. Just a few notes. One, the crew obviously didnt meet Ace in Alabasta. Second, they already have Brook. And third, I love you all and please enjoy. Thanks to everyone who kudoed, bookmarked and commented on the first book. Special thanks to my General. <3 <3 <3

"Are you okay, Luffy-san?"

Luffy blinks, turning from where he was watching the sun set. A huge, blinding grin forms on his face when he sees his newest nakama, Brook. His musician is just the right kind of weird, fitting with everyone as if the place had always been for him. He laughs, nodding his head enthusiastically.

"Everything's alright, Brook! Sanji, Food!"

He shouts his demand, running to the door that leads to their kitchen. He hears his cook scream that it was just an hour after lunch, Nami screeching about something, Usopp and Franky swapping ideas, Robin and Chopper talking, Zoro warily eyeing his brothers, and Brook frowning in confusion. You know, the usual.

He freezes.

Then he turns to look at Zoro with open jaws and wide eyes.

"Ace!" Luffy screams in delight, throwing himself at his older brother. A voice coughs, and he grins as wide as he could. "Sabo!"

He pulls the laughing blond towards him, giving them a hug as tight as he can. He doesn't know how Ace found him, or why Sabo's with him now, but they're together and he's crew is here and alive and oh! He needs to introduce them to each other and his brothers will love his crew and—

He grins widely, stepping back to look at his crew. 

"Lu! How's the sea been treating you? I've heard something about fighting the Government and declaring War? Pretty gutsy of you, if I do say so myself," Ace snickers, throwing an arm around Luffy. He shrugs.

"They took my nakama, so I took her back. Everything's fine now."

He can't help but glance at Zoro, though, who's still covered with bandages from head to toe. And no one still wants to tell him what happened after the big bear guy came. He firmly pushes his worries away, tugging his brothers towards his nakama.

"Come on! I'll introduce you to everyone," he says, his nakama still frowning in confusion. He grins wider.

"This is Zoro! He's my badass swordsman and he's really, really strong! He can get lost in a straight line, though," he whispers the last part, snickering. "And that's Nami! She's my navigator and she loves money! And her mikan too. That's Usopp, he's my sniper and liar! He can do lots of other things too! And Sanji's in the kitchen, and he's the best cook ever. He's also really great at kicking. And Chopper's the reindeer, he's my doctor! He's the best doctor! And this is Robin, she's my arche-arcel-"

"Archaeologist, sencho."

"Yeah, that. She knows a lot of things and oh! Oh! This is Franky! He's my super shipwright and I bet you don't have a cyborg in your crew! And Brook is my musician is the best musician ever, and he's also a skeleton!"

The last part was said triumphantly, and he looks at his brothers with a proud grin. He bets his vest that none of them had met a living skeleton or a cyborg, ever. His crew is awesome like that.

"Shouldn't that be kicking ass instead of kicking?" Sabo murmurs, but Luffy ignores that. He said what he meant and he meant what he said. Besides, Ace is frowning thoughtfully.

"I bet we can kick their asses," he declares, "along with yours!"

"Hey! Don't include me in your squabbles!"

"Shishishi! Ace is gonna _lose_."

"I'll kick both your asses then!"

"Luffy-san?"

The three of them stops, staring at each other. Luffy laughs, and the other two follows suit. Until Nami spoke, that is.

"Luffy, I'd really like an explanation right. Now."

He turns to look at his twitching navigator, grinning mischievously.

"They're my brothers!" 

The declaration was followed by incredulous silence, before Nami's palm met her face. She's grumbling something he didn't quite catch, but she's not hitting him so its fine. Probably. Mostly.

Luffy laughs. His crew is so funny. Beside him, Sabo sighs fondly.


	2. Fluffy indulgence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I promise I'll introduce the Whitebeards again next chap. And, yes, I'm sorry for everything I should be sorry for. Especially the oocness of this chapter. 
> 
> *stumbles away crying about school because god I'm still doing school work 2 days before Christmas*

"Anyway, let's fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!" Luffy cheers, jumping up and down enthusiastically. He watches as Zoro smirks and unsheaths his swords while Sanji walks out the door.

"I... Don't think that's a good idea, Captain. We're in the middle of the ocean. And we really don't want to damage Sunny..." Robin warns, her shoulders slightly hunched and eyes wary, but Luffy grins as wide as he could to reassure her. 

These are his brothers, and he knows they'll never hurt him. 

(Vaguely, he remembers pain and fire and a brotherhood forged in blood and the pulsing, terrifying ache of being alone.) 

(He remembers blood on his hands and on his face and _everywhere_, and the way they burst through the doors for him.)

(He remembers, much more clearly, the dark, heavy eyes of Ace, the determination in Sabo's, the fierce determination they carried everytime they saved him.)

(It's easy to push it aside, the tears and blood and pain their bonds we're forged in, but Luffy still remembers the ache of being alone, feels the fresh ache of losing his nakama one by one to a flower in an almost dream but not quite, he remembers-) 

(Sometimes, he sees the bandages on Zoro's body and how defeated they'd been when Kuma came for them, and he wonders.) 

(He hates wondering.) 

So he laughs, pushing all the lingering thoughts in his mind, knowing it's better to not think at all than to dwell in the past. 

"It's okay, actually," Ace starts, and Luffy feels excitement rush through him when he sees the smirk, because that means he's getting a fight, "I could defeat all of you without as much as a scratch on your ship."

Luffy laughs, jumping away, and grins as he watches his friends bristle. He'll defeat Ace now, he's sure, because he's grown during the 3 years they've been seperated. He's stronger, now, and he's nakama are strong too. 

"Fight!" 

Luffy immediately attacks, falling easily into habit of dodging and attacking-but he has something better now. He laughs as Zoro comes from behind him, twists a bit as Sanji burst from his left. He kicks, and punches, and watches Ace dodge all of it with ease. 

Now more determined, he pushed harder, quicker, sure that if he just does a little more, he'll win. He almost, almost activates Second Gear, but remembers Chopper amd his warnings, and decides to leave it alone. For now. 

Ace laughs, smug and arrogant as he dodges and catches every one of their attacks, and Luffy can hear Sabo cackling in the background. He knows that Sabo probably got his ass kicked by Ace, too.

Then something in the air changes, and Luffy dodges but Zoro can't, and suddenly his swordsman is flying straight into Sanji and the two collapses against each other. Luffy fought against Ace, but knows-

He hits the deck with Ace on his back, and he laughs. He'll win next time. 

***  
"You lost again, Lu!"

Sabo laughs, eyes bright and fond, and watches Luffy huff angrily.

"Ace was cheating! He dodged a lot," his adorable little brother whines, a pout on his lips as Ace threw his head back and laughed as hard as he could. 

"It's called tactics, Luffy. Gotta learn how to plan outside of just attacking," Ace, the huge hypocrite, says and Sabo snorts loudly. 

"Says the hot-headed man," he teases lightly, dodging the half-hearted swipe thrown in his direction. He pulls the two upright, watching the two mess around with each other, and shakes his head fondly. 

He turns to the crew of his little brother, swipes his hat from his head and bows as he says, "Thank you for taking care of my little brother."

The red-haired teen, Nami, if he remembers it right, smiles, looking dazed and just a little bit scared. Nico Robin, the only other lady, eyes him and Ace warily, but he doesn't mind. He understands. 

Franky is the cyborg, he muses, who is... Crying? Something about brothers and reunions. Sabo doesn't want to know, not really. Brook is the skeleton, former captain of a ship that sailed long before Roger's era. He's pretty brave, Sabo thinks, because not much was known about the Grand Line in those days. Given, much is still unknown today, but still. 

The little doctor reindeer is hiding behind the marksman, and Sabo smiles kindly as the child finally peeks out. Usopp, possibly Yasopp's son, gives a brave, shaky smile at him. Sabo nods. The poor guy seems terrified still. 

He stands, sighing as he fixes his clothes, turning to the last two. Zoro, the swordsman, has a lot of raw potential and more than enough brute force to be a powerhouse someday. A bit more training, he thinks, and then. Well, only the future may tell. He gives the teen a nod, then turns to look at the blond. 

Sanji is another well of potential, and he finally got what Luffy mean by really good at kicking. He even could see the beginnings of Soru during the 'fight'. 

Looking at all of them, he's wary. Worried, especially with the storm looming in the horizon. The danger they'll be going into, what kind of political bullshit they'll be in the middle of. 

He looks at them, still so young and already went through so much. They're good, he doesn't doubt that especially when it was Luffy who picked them, but what if it's not good enough? Tonight, he and Ace'll be talkin to Luffy about what's happening. Tomorrow, they'll be deciding their fates, and Sabo can finally admit that he's afraid. 

Afraid for Luffy, for Ace, for Gramps. He's afraid for Makino and Woopslap and Dadan and everyone back in the east. He's worried, sometimes to the point of feeling sick. 

But, mostly, he's worried what'll happen if they all left, or if they stayed. He doesn't know which one will be worse. 

(That's a lie, of course, because he knows that leaving Luffy will be the worse option. He'll never be able to forgive them, he knows, and maybe it's horrible of him but he'd rather die standing with Luffy and Ace than leave them behind.) 

(He already did that once, and he lost ten years of his life.)


End file.
